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2016 | Book

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Popular Music in Eastern Europe

Breaking the Cold War Paradigm

Editor: Ewa Mazierska

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK

Book Series : Pop Music, Culture and Identity

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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About this book

This book explores popular music in Eastern Europe during the period of state socialism, in countries such as Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, Czechoslovakia, the GDR, Estonia and Albania. It discusses the policy concerning music, the greatest Eastern European stars, such as Karel Gott, Czesław Niemen and Omega, as well as DJs and the music press. By conducting original research, including interviews and examining archival material, the authors take issue with certain assumptions prevailing in the existing studies on popular music in Eastern Europe, namely that it was largely based on imitation of western music and that this music had a distinctly anti-communist flavour. Instead, they argue that self-colonisation was accompanied with creating an original idiom, and that the state not only fought the artists, but also supported them. The collection also draws attention to the foreign successes of Eastern European stars, both within the socialist bloc and outside of it.
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Table of Contents

Frontmatter
1. Introduction
Popular Music in Eastern Europe: Breaking the ‘Cold War Paradigm’
Abstract
The Introduction argues that the prevailing way to present popular music in Eastern Europe is by emphasising its self-colonising character, namely its imitation of western music, and its oppositional attitude to the official ideology. Instead, the authors of the subsequent chapters offer a more balanced take on this phenomenon, pointing to its creative engagement with western music and the advantages of operating under state socialist system. It also presents the structure of the book, which is divided into three parts. The first part is devoted to music policy and their effect on music produced in a number of countries. The second part analyses the role of ‘gatekeepers’ and mediators between the artists and audiences, namely censors, journalists and DJs. The last part concerns the greatest stars from the region.
Ewa Mazierska

State Policies and its Interpretation by Grassroots

Frontmatter
2. Propagated, Permitted or Prohibited? State Strategies to Control Musical Entertainment in the First Two Decades of Socialist Hungary
Abstract
This chapter focuses on aesthetic and political debates concerning popular music in the first two decades of socialist Hungary. It challenges the assumption that the communist authorities continuously rejected the productions of western-influenced popular culture. Ignácz’s argument is that the regime tried to gain political and commercial profit from the popularity of popular musical genres. Relying on archival data and media coverage, he scrutinises the most important state strategies to control popular musical entertainment and examines those principles of cultural policy which seemed to be unchangeable during the two decades of the communist rule. He argues that despite policy remaining stable, popular music in Hungary underwent a spectacular change after 1956.
Ádám Ignácz
3. Pop-Rock and Propaganda During the Ceaușescu Regime in Communist Romania
Abstract
The Romanian version of state socialism, developed by the regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu, is described as one of the most repressive within the Soviet bloc. The purpose of this chapter is to take a close look at Ceaușescu’s dictatorship and to identify the way in which the political system and its ideological apparatus coped with the local youth culture and its musical expressions. An important level of interpretation is the description of the mechanisms by which the Party propaganda integrated western-style music into its wider social persuasion mechanisms. This mixed method research evaluates the impact of pop-rock in Romania during two decades, by discussing fandom and its influence on different cultural representations, from art to literature and cinema.
Doru Pop
4. Estonian Invasion as Western Ersatz-pop
Abstract
The 1970s and 1980s was a period when Estonian light pop music (estrada) was extremely popular all over the Soviet Union. This chapter argues that within the strict Soviet cultural framework there existed a pop culture that manipulated categories of the official ‘workers’ culture’. Estonia was the ‘Soviet West’, and Soviet culture managers in Goskontsert and other state organisations promoted this image in order to create popular stadium artists. In this way, Estonian music was projected as a substitute for Western pop music in order to satisfy a demand for Western music. Ventsel’s intention is to show how the Soviet Union had its culture industry driven by commercial interests, and was less ideological than expected.
Aimar Ventsel
5. The Eagle Rocks: Isolation and Cosmopolitanism in Albania’s Pop-Rock Scene
Abstract
Albania is widely regarded as the most isolated of all Eastern European countries. However, Williams argues that despite its isolation, there was an underground penetration of international pop culture, particularly from Italy. Moreover, during the 1980s, private groups also met at Tirana’s artificial lake and performed forbidden western music. These performances by the so-called ‘Lake Bands’ provided an opportunity for Albanians to familiarise themselves with western rock music. Nonetheless, it was not until 1988 that singer/guitarist Aleksander Gjoka staged Albania’s first rock concert. Williams points to the fact that even in a country epitomising isolation there was room for western and indigenous pop-rock.
Bruce Williams

The Function of ‘Gatekeepers’

Frontmatter
6. Censorship, Dissent and the Metaphorical Language of GDR Rock
Abstract
The German Democratic Republic (GDR) rock industry was run by a network of agencies which monitored all acts which gained access to the media. These agencies, under the guise of trying to ensure high artistic quality in order to differentiate GDR music from the decadent pop of the West, in reality functioned as the censors of politically undesirable acts. This chapter examines case studies of prominent groups such as Renft, the Puhdys, Silly and Pankow to illustrate the difficulties of navigating a career within the GDR music industry. It will observe how a distinctive practice of metaphorical lyric writing emerged, on the one hand, to circumvent censorship and, on the other, to satisfy a public thirst for critically challenging art in the face of a dearth of oppositional culture in the public arena.
David Robb
7. Folk Music as a Folk Enemy: Music Censorship in Socialist Yugoslavia
Abstract
Yugoslavia attempted with a significant degree of success, to implement the so-called liberal socialism. This resulted in complex censorship regimes of popular music that operated in the empty space between official negations and actual enforcements. Overt censorship mainly concerned a handful of issues, such as the national identities of the respective constitutional peoples of Yugoslavia and the representation of the country’s leader, Tito. Hofman shifts her attention from institutional mechanisms of censorship to personal and unwritten norms and practices, in particular self-censorship and the so-called ‘editorial censorship’ that concerned with limiting the presence of certain genres in the media. She focuses on one such genre: NCFM (newly-composed folk music), which was an object of prejudices and restrictions due to its perceived low artistic quality and purely commercial character.
Ana Hofman
8. ‘The Second Golden Age’: Popular Music Journalism during the Late Socialist Era of Hungary
Abstract
Zsófia Réti analyses how popular music journalism functioned in the late socialist period of Hungary. She argues that despite the fact that this type of journalism was missing some of the institutional support that was available for the other branches of journalism, it worked well. Hungarian music and youth magazines presented a wide range of opinions, which reflected not so much the Party directives as the views of specific journalists. Hungarian journalists operated as a close-knit community, and the legendary personalities of popular music journalism exerted considerable influence on shaping music fashions. The freedom and flourishing of music journalism reflected Kádár’s relatively liberal stance towards culture, according to which what was not openly oppositional was tolerated.
Zsófia Réti
9. Youth Under Construction: The Generational Shifts in Popular Music Journalism in the Poland of the 1980s
Abstract
Drawing on the concept of the field of power, as elaborated by Pierre Bourdieu, Rachubińska and Stańczyk regard Polish journalists as the agents of ‘mild’ pressure that mediated between the state and the artists. Analysing articles published in two leading Polish music magazines of the 1980s, Non Stop and Jazz. Magazyn Muzyczny, they argue that the line dividing journalists working there did not concern their attitude to the ideology or the government, but rather their attitude to what was perceived as high and low art within popular music, and their own role as tastemakers. Hence, the older Jazz. Magazyn Muzyczny positioned itself as a defender of the avant-garde and educator of readers, while Non Stop was more open to different musical genres.
Klaudia Rachubińska, Xawery Stańczyk
10. The Birth of Socialist Disc Jockey: Between Music Guru, DIY Ethos and Market Socialism
Abstract
Zubak explores the emergence of Yugoslav disc jockeys from the late 1960s, examining the complexities of translating this pop-cultural profession into a new socialist environment. The chapter shows how this specific context with its limited supply of commodities pushed club DJs to develop more diverse skills than their western counterparts. Zubak traces a variety of roles performed by Yugoslav DJs, from early pioneers and mediators of pop culture to proto-entrepreneurs who paved the way for private businesses in the state-run economy. He identifies them as emblematic figures of late socialism who embodied central features of the period, such as the rise of consumerism, increasing westernization, the influx of market socialism and gradual ideological relaxation.
Marko Zubak

Eastern European Stars

Frontmatter
11. Karel Gott: The Ultimate Star of Czechoslovak Pop Music
Abstract
Karel Gott reached the status of a pop star in 1960s and maintained it till the present day. He was very popular not only in Czechoslovakia, but also in the whole Eastern bloc and German-speaking countries. In Czechoslovakia he served as a unique element of the official communist culture while enjoying popularity in Western Europe. Bílek explains Gott’s stardom status as a case of structured polysemy. Communist propaganda appropriated certain symbolic features of his image and performance while his mainstream audience focused on his professionalism, entertaining qualities and uniqueness of being a ‘Sinatra from the East’. Bílek analyses the chronological development of Gott’s career, discussing the interplay between his public image, music production and cultural and political contexts.
Petr A. Bílek
12. Czesław Niemen: Between Enigma and Political Pragmatism
Abstract
Niemen in Poland occupied the position of a national superstar. However, in contrast to Gott, who is associated with light music, Niemen’s posture was distinctly rock. Throughout his life he was seen as an autonomous artist who created music of such quality that it moved into the area of high art. He drew on classics of Polish romantic literature, most importantly Cyprian Kamil Norwid, and favoured universal themes and messages, as epitomised by his greatest hit, Strange Is This World, rather than songs having distinctly political content. Mazierska argues that this allowed a large section of his fans to see him as a non-conformist artist, yet without putting him in conflict with the authorities. The chapter also examines Niemen’s attempt to become a star outside his country.
Ewa Mazierska
13. Omega: Red Star from Hungary
Abstract
This chapter presents the career of the Hungarian rock band Omega against the background of social, economic and political forces which shaped popular music in Hungary after the Second World War. It argues that Omega’s career is a genuine Hungarian success story, despite the monopolistic system of the party-state with its crippling bureaucracy, which shaped pop music scene in every respect, the political and social prejudices of the era, the lack of funds which stifled promotion, the impossibility of the musicians’ recurring presence in western countries, and their lack of their fluency in English. Despite all of these factors, Omega was the closest any pop-rock band ever got to world fame from Hungary or, indeed, from the whole former Eastern bloc.
Bence Csatári, Béla Szilárd Jávorszky
14. Perverse Imperialism: Republika’s Phenomenon in the 1980s
Abstract
Republika was one of the most popular Polish rock bands in the 1980s, and its charismatic leader, Grzegorz Ciechowski, became one of the greatest Polish rock stars of all time, despite his perceived arrogance. In his chapter, Fortuna focuses on the motif of power present both in the image of the group and its music. Analysing song lyrics of Republika’s debut album Nowe Sytuacje (New Situations) and radio mockumentary Odlot (Trip) by Zbigniew Ostrowski, Fortuna argues that Republika’s songs were a perverse fantasy about the domination and subordination, which appealed to the unconscious needs of listeners and compensated for the actual lack of power of the Polish state in the 1980s.
Piotr Fortuna
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Popular Music in Eastern Europe
Editor
Ewa Mazierska
Copyright Year
2016
Electronic ISBN
978-1-137-59273-6
Print ISBN
978-1-137-59272-9
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59273-6